Under the Christmas Tree || 2023 Short Story Collection [Complete]

1| ☃︎A Christmas Surprise❜

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❝My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others.❞

—Bob Hope

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Jin

December 24th, 2023

'It's Christmas eve. Finally!'

I just got some time off work and decided to go shopping-although I now deeply regret that decision.

The last minute shoppers had run a rampage through the streets of the city, bombarding the little shops that line the main road in the local market.

I'd just got there and already wished I hadn't driven there. Finding a parking spot was a complete nightmare-and my friend, Jimin, wasn't of much help as he hummed along to every single Christmas song played on the radio or in the stores we passed by.

The malls we'd tried before this were even worse!

We'd been to ALL the major malls in the vicinity and I'm at a point where I wanted to stand there, in the middle of the street and scream all of my frustration out. (But I didn't feel like visiting the police station or psych ward on Christmas eve, so I reigned it all in.)

I couldn't seem to find a simple little thing. All I needed were photo frames.

'Not even the annoying musical frames... Just six of the regular ones.'

'Hmmm.... and maybe some gift wrap.' But all the stores were out of both these things!

And all I could find were gift boxes with ribbons.

"Jin hyung why didn't you shop online if you were so busy?" Jimin innocently asked, as he walked the streets with me.

"Well... Jimin, you know how busy it is at the office right before Christmas eve. We get more orders at this time of year. A lot of our customers are in a hurry to send out all their customers' orders before we close so that their parcels are received before customs closes. So, there just wasn't any time in between all the reports I had to send off," I huffed out, tired after walking out of the tenth store, with nothing.

That's just one of the joys of working in logistics. You never get time off when it matters!

Jimin nodded sagely. "Yeah, that makes sense."